Here are the robots you’ll be ordering this Christmas

They’re coming. No, they’re here. We’re talking about robots and not just the industrial type that put together your car.

A European competition set for July will pit six companies with six very different robotic concepts against one another. Yet regardless of who wins, the contestants are likely to show up in consumers’ hands in the not-too-distant future, like, say, maybe the holidays.

Let’s preview three of those contestants (the non-industrial ones) so you know what’s coming:

That’s the Gimball from Flyability, a firm based in Switzerland. Described as “a game-changing approach to flying,” Flyability’s robot is the first collision-proof drone, the company notes.

The floating cage protects the drone’s propellers, allowing for fluid camera motion, despite bumping into things along the way. The company’s website offers up a video of the gimball bumping its way through a forest to illustrate its ability to take a licking and keep on ticking.

Reach Robotics introduces the first gaming robots. The spider-like contraptions can do battle in a wide variety of ways, according to Silas Adekunle, the British firm’s CEO, who introduces us to the concept in the website video.

The company hopes to start shipping in November, just in time for you-know-what.

Robotbase brings us the personal robot for $995 (marked down from $2,000). Website: “Not just a robot, it’s artificial intelligence. Not just recognizing your face, it knows your moods. Not just understanding what you say, it knows what you really mean. It learns and gets smarter every day.”

The personal computer sits on a base with a round screen, somewhat reminiscent of the magic mirror employed by the Queen in Sleeping Beauty. An animated face talks to you in all kinds of ways while Robotbase suggests multiple uses: personal assistant, hands-free helper, security guard and storyteller. Why the mother who looks on so lovingly as the robot tells her child a story can’t do it herself is another matter but that’s just me.

Author: Steve Tarter

Born in England, raised in Boston, I'm a Midwestern transplant who's called Peoria home for the past 40 years. Married with four grown children, I enjoy journalism, film noir and radio drama. As the song goes, I like coffee; I like tea. Former president of the Apollo Theater in Downtown Peoria, I'm looking for a new raison d'etre.
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